Quite analogous to this attitude of the advocates of special
legislation for working women is that of the people who concern
themselves with the so-called problem of the educated woman, which
is supposed to be that of reconciling domesticity with intellectual
pursuits. A timely illustration of this attitude is the establishment
by Smith College of an institute for the “co-ordination of women’s
interests.” The purpose of this institute, in the words of President
Neilson, is “to find a solution of the problem which confronts
almost every educated woman today--how to reconcile a normal life
of marriage and motherhood with a life of intellectual activity,
professional or otherwise.” Here again is the tacit assumption that
marriage is the special concern of woman, and one whose claims must
take precedence over her other interests, whatever they may be; that
marriage and motherhood constitute her normal life, and her other
interests something extra-normal which must somehow be made to fit in
if possible. I have heard of no institute intended to find a way to
reconcile the normal life of marriage and fatherhood with a life of
intellectual activity, professional or otherwise; although when one
considers how many educated men of today are obliged to compromise with
their consciences in order to secure themselves in positions which
will enable them to provide for their families, one is persuaded that
some such institute might be at least equally appropriate and equally
helpful with that which Smith College has established.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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